The present invention is related to integrated circuit system technologies according to a novel Document-Instruction-Set-Computing (DISC) principle. More specifically, the present invention not merely defines the core functions for a baseline DISC single chip integrated circuit, it equally set sufficient evolution guidelines for future generations of scalable DISC microprocessors capable of wide range of real-time performance. In particular, these novel DISC microprocessors can effectively perform distributed document storage, processing and retrieval operations for systems, services, and applications including, but not limited to, personal communication systems, interactive database retrieval, HDTV, object-oriented systems and functions, and multimedia computing devices.
Digital signal coding, storage, retrieval, control, and processing of document data types in real-time represents the most time-critical functional component for many of the emerging computing, communication, and storage systems or devices. For almost all of the document signal processing technologies which being developed to date, single or plurality of host processors or coprocessors means, in conjunction with additional hardware, firmware, or software means, are proposed according to the existing complex-instruction-set-computing (CISC) or reduced-instruction-set-computing (RISC) principles.
These CISC or RISC host processing or coprocessing techniques can partially improve the performance of specific data subsystems, such as encoding multiple algorithms, managing memory or display devices, and adapting to existing DOS, OS2, WINDOW, NT, or UNIX application and system environments. Typically, they can be readily implemented either in hardware, firmware, or software means embedded with custom integrated circuit, digital signal processor, or application specific integrated circuit (ASIC""s). Though practical, the speed and performance of these technologies are severely limited by the overall system throughput, and the run-time architectural supports for processing; networking; program control; and memory management imposed by the CISC and RISC data computing principles.
Since CISC and RISC technologies have primarily invented to optimize the run-time data computation performance for fixed or floating point data operations, run-time procedure and data are typically coded, stored and retrieved in specific file format from local or remote disk storage. Therefore, CISC and RISC computing devices becomes insufficient to meet real-time performance when it is required to interactively manipulate, retrieve, and process variable-size document data types, and to provide direct real-time architectural support for distributed processing and database programming environment. For example, please refer to U.S. Pat. No. 5,056,154 to Aono, U.S. Pat. No. 5,047,953 to Smallwood, U.S. Pat. No. 5,010,495 to Willetts, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,899,148 to Sato.
While the aforesaid patents teach individual method and apparatus for compressing and decompressing the binary document image data, improving the document data frame-memory subsystem performance, and enhancing the visual quality for display or printout of the decompressed document image, none of aforesaid patents have ever directed themselves to the concept and structure of a novel method and apparatus for more generalized computing platform which would interconnect all the data processing machines for enterprise, consumer, and communications, and allow individuals to create, augment, select, interpret, retrieve, update, and present multiple forms of compound document data, including annotated descriptions of sound, image, graphics, and live video sequence in a coherent and effective system architecture which would automatically adjust to each individually available processor and memory bandwidth, capable of communicating in multiple bandwidths to traverse through wide ranges of networks, prioritize each individual complex document data types, and allow for optimum performance for complex document data interpretation and processing.
More significantly, although all these prior arts have shown CISC and RISC can be extremely suitable for traditional computation-intensive application and programming environments. None of the aforesaid patents have directed themselves to the concept and structure of broadening the scope, and to develop a new computing facility. This new computing platform can not only interconnect the regular computers and workstations, but it can also interconnect many other desktop data equipment, including but not limit to, copy machines, scanners, fax machines, printers, televisions, camcorders, telephones, VCR""s, CD players, cameras, sensors, or any other consumer and personal communication devices in a totally integrated system and database environment. Consequently, in this novel Integrated computing environment, complex document data manipulation, storage, and retrieval gain the highest priority, and achieve the best performance as comparing to traditional data computation tasks, and regular computers and workstations would become a subset of this novel distributed computing platform.
DISC architecture offers a totally new distributed computing platform. Distinguish from all the prior arts which have adapted the traditional CISC or RISC computing discipline, DISC provides new methods and apparatus to organize a plurality of complex document data types, DISC also streamline, optimize and preschedule the document instruction clusters, and provide parallel or pipeline execution for these instructions. DISC further provide hardware architectural supports to efficiently execute high-level programming and database language constructs, and to facilitate CISC or RISC application coprocessor for traditional DOS or UNIX applications. Finally, DISC provide distributed object-oriented operating-system interface to support supplemental execution of traditional DOS or UNIX application tasks with the real time DISC document signal processing.
Accordingly several objects and advantages of my invention are:
An object of the present invention is to define an integrated document computing architecture which can accommodate communications, storage, and retrieval, of all digitally-coded or algorithmic complex document data types.
Another object of the invention is to provide a novel integrated system architecture which is flexible and allows the control and communications among copy machines, scanners, fax machines, printers, camcorders, televisions, telephones, VCR""s, CD players, cameras, sensors, or any other consumer and personal communications data processors, as well as desktop data processors such as computers and workstations.
A still further object of the present invention is to provide for a novel process architecture which allows for direct hardware support in compression, bandwidth management, program control, instruction streamlining and prescheduling, parallel or pipeline execution, run-time memory and database management, decompression, display and printout, and other time-critical functions for manipulation, storage, and retrieval of complex document data objects in high-level programming and database language architecture.
A still further object of the present invention is to provide for a novel process architecture which not only allows for digital coding techniques, but also can interface with traditional analog storage or transmission techniques.
A still further object of the present invention is to provide for a novel process architecture which allows the human users to interface with application program and database, and to select the appropriate document data types media combination either before or during the communication session.
A still further object of the present invention is to provide for a novel process architecture which not only allows for the most optimized system performance for complex document data types, but also can directly execute traditional computation-intensive application programs using a CISC or RISC application coprocessor.
A still further object of the present invention is to provide for a novel process architecture which allows for an optimized operating system for complex document data types, and accommodate traditional UNIX, DOS, or other traditional desktop operating systems.
Further objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from a consideration of the drawings and ensuing description of it.
Our present invention, DISC (Document-Instruction-Set-Computing) architecture, offers new computing discipline optimized for real time data manipulation and interpretation for compound document related applications. This is totally distinguished from all prior arts which have adapted the traditional CISC or RISC architectural discipline, which are best optimized for real time data computation. DISC provides new methods and apparatus to organize, store, retrieve, update, and present a plurality of compound document data types. DISC also streamline, optimize, and preschedule these document instruction clusters, and provide parallel or pipeline execution for these instructions. DISC further provides hardware supports for run-time memory and database management, program control, preprocessing and post processing, compression and decompression. DISC can directly query document data from either memory, file, or databases. DISC further sport CISC or RISC application coprocessor to perform traditional DOS or UNIX or alike applications. Finally, DISC provides object-oriented operation system and database interface which can provide concurrent execution of DISC, DOS and UNIX operations.
FIGS. 2A and 2B show the architectural principle of DISC. Contrary to a traditional RISC or CISC architecture, the data processors and memory system are completely optimized to facilitate variable sized block oriented data instead of the traditional bit-oriented data streams. To be more specific, data information are organized according to selective internally reconfigurable block format, wherein these internal format can accommodate various processor configurations as well as data throughput. A scalable smart memory system architecture and memory management unit also provides the programmable data block addressing, frame memory management, and associative block search.
In addition, DISC instruction sets can be statically compiled into a set of system look-up tables (SLUT""s). Based upon the run time bandwidth constraints caused by either network congestion or application request, the DISC instruction processor can prefetch a group of such DISC instructions, and designate them with various functional units for parallel or pipeline execution. Comparing to the more traditional cache or virtual memory techniques widely used in the existing RISC or CISC computers, the SLUT technique employes intelligent fast associative search scheme, and is able to simultaneously perform prescheduling, compilation, linking, assembling, dereferencing, and issuing instructions for run-time execution, program control, and memory or database management functions.
In a DISC architecture, a scalable smart memory system is connected to the functional units and scalable formatter, which can access, store, and transfer blocks of document data based on the selective internal format.
In FIG. 3, DISC architecture also illustrate an embedded RISC or CISC co-processor element in order to directly execute the bit oriented application programs in DOS, Window, NT, Macintosh, OS2, UNIX, or alike. In a more preferred embodiment, DISC can include a real time object oriented operation system wherein concurrent execution of the application program and real time DISC based document computing can be performed.
DISC architecture provides a single computing platform to support a plurality of supplemental document data types including but not limited to, live motion video, voice, music, still image, and animated graphics. Consequently, it becomes feasible to digitally integrate copy machine, scanner,fax machine, printers, slide projectors, camcorders, television, computers, cameras, telephones, answering machines, and alike, with human users and traditional application program.